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UEFA Considers Politics in Euro Draw

By Benji Lanyado February 8, 2010 3:19 pmFebruary 8, 2010 3:19 pm

As European soccer’s bureaucratic elite huddled through a sub-zero Warsaw dawn and into the Palace of Culture and Science on Sunday morning, a small white plastic ball was about to make history. For the first time, the proceedings of international tournament was about to be willingly – and publicly – manipulated.

A few minutes into the draw for the qualifying rounds of Euro 2012, Armenia was plucked from a bowl and drawn to play in Group A; at that stage populated only by Azerbaijan. The dapper, bald-headed Gianni Infantino, UEFA general secretary and host for the day, chuckled before turning to the vast crowd. “Exactly what should not have happened has happened,” he joked, as the auditorium played along, laughing nervously. Then something remarkable happened. Armenia were swiftly removed from Group A, and were shuffled into Group B, alongside Andorra.

The reasoning for this move had been circulated a day earlier. UEFA had decided that Armenia and Azerbaijan, whose diplomatic relations are non-existent because of a 22-year feud over the Azeri province of Nagorno-Karabakh, would not be allowed to compete in the same group. The same would go for Georgia and Russia, who were to be kept apart after the two countries’ 2008 conflict in South Ossetia. The draw was more cooperative when their names were pulled from the bowls, separating the two naturally.

The decision was unprecedented – never before had teams in an international tournament been forbidden from meeting.

Michel Platini was keen to underline the thinking behind the move. Speaking prior to the draw, the UEFA president talked of the last time Armenia and Azerbaijan were drawn together – during the qualifying rounds of Euro 2008 – when UEFA cancelled the games over to security concerns

“They didn’t want to play each other and we did not want to have the same situation again. It’s precisely because we don’t want to mix sport and politics – it’s a very good decision.”

Soccer and politics are perennially encouraged to remain mutually exclusive, yet some may interpret UEFA’s decision as having been obviously influenced by geo-politics. North Korea and South Korea were drawn in the same Asian qualifying group for the 2010 World Cup, and nothing was done to separate them. In spite of heightened military tensions between Colombia and neighboring Venezuela and Ecuador, matches between the countries in the South American World Cup qualifying groups were not affected.

Indeed, readers will be reminded of times that sport has performed a conciliatory function – when the United States and Iran were matched together in the 1998 World Cup, the game went ahead and two clubs famously exchanged gifts and posed together for a group photo before to the match. Then again, they might also be reminded of the more brutal, tribal elements of the game, including endless examples of fan-on-fan violence in South America, tension during recent games featuring North African rivals Egypt and Algeria, and the recent resurfacing of large-scale hooligan disruption in England.

UEFA’s decision seems to have feared the latter. Speaking after the draw, Russia coach Guus Hiddink lamented the move:

“I’m a sportsman and it’s always a pity when countries are separated for non-sporting reasons. You have seen the recent situation where I worked in South Korea. They would desperately like to be with North Korea. With sports, you cannot do a lot but sometimes it can help.”

What do you make of the UEFA decision?

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Goal, The New York Times soccer blog, will report on news and features from the world of soccer and around the Web. Times editors and reporters will follow international tournaments and provide analysis of games. There will be interviews with players, coaches and notable soccer fans, as well as a weekly blog column by Red Bulls forward Jozy Altidore. Readers can discuss Major League Soccer, foreign leagues and other issues with fellow soccer fans.